Big Barda

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. While Valentine's Day maybe behind us for another year, love is still in the air and to celebrate the seasons, we're counting down the best couples in all of comics.

We're looking back at the long and weird history of superhero comics by picking our favorite heroes from each decade in our latest fantasy draft. Each team must include one character who debuted before 1950, one character that debuted in each decade from the '50s to the '90s, and one character that debuted in 2000 or beyond, plus two wildcard picks from before and after 1980, for a total team of nine characters. Today our writers pick a Doom Patroller, a dog, an extreme teen, a latter-day Stan Lee creation, and some of the most popular heroes of the 21st century

Can’t decide which superheroes are your favorites? Why not enjoy a little bit of all of them? That's the great thing about superhero teams; they bring together everyone from the most famous and iconic heroes to the most bizarre and obscure. And no superteam captures that idea better than the Justice League. For your viewing pleasure, we’ve amassed our own super gallery featuring cosplayers portraying members of the Justice League throughout the years. Every cape, every cowl, every leotard featured shows off the enormous wealth of talent on the part of the cosplayers who take up these heroes' mantles. These are the best Justice League cosplays ever.

Q: What are the best Die Hard tributes or knockoffs in comics? -- @chudleycannons A: Considering how common it is for action movies to try to re-create the feeling of Die Hard, you'd probably be surprised at how little that actually happens in comics. I mean, it makes sense that it would be that way --- despite starting out life as a novel with the amazing title of Nothing Lasts Forever, Die Hard is pretty inextricably tied to being an action movie, and it's difficult to recreate what makes it work so well in another medium. The closest thing we'd have to that in comics is the massive number of characters that were created as homages or knockoffs of Superman. But if you're looking for a story that operates on those same principles --- a single hero trapped in a confined space, dealing with limited resources and overwhelming odds --- then there are definitely a few stories that fit the bill.

One of the noticeable differences between DC and Marvel is the number of prominent superheroes that wear capes. Compare any group shot of any number of Marvel superheroes to any group shot of DC superheroes and chances are good that there will be more capes on the DC side. There's a litany of reasons why this could have taken root in the intrinsic creative works of both companies, but one of the strongest is the role of one artist and creator in the building and evolution of both publishers into what we know of them today: Jack Kirby.

Costume design is one of the great strengths of the superhero genre, a way to establish distinctive visual shorthand for a character and reveal key details about concept, purpose, and personality. But which is the best superhero costume of all time? This month, we're asking you to decide, by voting up your favorites and voting down the rest. When we have your votes, we'll compile a list of the greatest super-costumes of all time. This week we're looking at some quintessential costume designs decade-by-decade. Today it's five costumes from the 1970s. While Jack Kirby was creating his own unique and peculiar gods for distant worlds, other artists created street-level heroes inspired by contemporary culture. But were any of these costumes designed in ways that still look great today?

Last week we polled you on some of comics' most celebrated couples. Rather than pitting them head to head, we offered a straight vote between 'True Love' and 'Bad Romance,' and as a result, we have a list of twenty couples rated for greatness, with Harley Quinn and Joker down at the bottom, and the perhaps surprising choice of Wally West and Linda Park at #1. But a lot of famous couples are missing from the list, and even though Valentine's Day is behind us, we've not yet had our fill of love. So here's your opportunity to nominate the other couples that need to be voted on to come up with the definitive list of comics' greatest romantic couples. Wally and Linda are the current king and queen, but can another couple claim their crowns?

Q: Mister Miracle and Big Barda: great superhero romance or greatest superhero romance? --@ReverendMagnett A: You know, Reverend, ComicsAlliance is having a poll right this very minute to determine what our readers think is the greatest superhero romance, but as we all know, polls deal in opinion, while Ask Chris deals entirely in facts. Sure, they might appear to just be opinions with a lot of exclamation points thrown in, but trust me, it'll save us all a lot of time if we just agree that they're facts and move on.

Unleash your OTPs! As lovers everywhere get ready for a Valentine's Day weekend full of romance and passion, and as everyone else updates their Netflix lists and wonders if they're finally desperate enough to check out Hemlock Grove, it's time to ask you, the big-hearted ComicsAlliance readers, to rate some of the greatest romances in comics history to determine which of these legendary pairings is comics' greatest love story! Over the next three days we'll present you with a selection of the most celebrated couples in comics. All you have to do is say if their love is built to last or doomed to fail. If you think a couple should be together forever, through all the reboots and break-ups that a cruel god can throw at them, vote 'True Love'. If you think that the couple aren't really right together and maybe ought to reconsider everything their relationship is built on, vote 'Bad Romance'. The couple with the highest 'True Love' score will be have bragging rights as the best couple, and isn't that what Valentine's Day is really all about?

DC unveiled a post-Convergence line-up of titles last week that included two new solo titles for female heroes -- Black Canary, by Brenden Fletcher, Annie Wu, and Irene Koh; and Starfire by Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, and Emanuela Lupacchino. These books join the current line-up of Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Batgirl, and Harley Quinn. The publisher also announced the cancellation of Supergirl and Batwoman, leaving the number of DC solo titles starring women at a steady six. Clearly DC can do better than that. The publisher has a wealth of great female characters that haven't headlined their own solo series recently, or in some cases at all. DC clearly knows that the audience for these heroes is out there, but maybe it doesn't know who its next headliner should be. So ComicsAlliance will give them a little help by asking you, the readers, to vote for the DC woman you think most deserves her own book. (Spoiler: We know they all do.)